sassenach Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I can't remember where I heard this, but awhile back I heard a speaker say that making a child write sentences as part of a punishment will damage that child's love of learning. Do you agree with this? There are times when I think it would be a really deserving punishment for ds. We're having a lot of attitude issues lately and I am very tempted to dole out sentences to him, but I also don't want writing to equal horrible punishment. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyndie Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Hmmm, it didn't affect my son at all. We went through a very intense phase of writing sentences.every.day. He still loves learning. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalmia Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 My son has written "I will flush the toilet" three hundred times over the past two months. He still loves learning, and he still doesn't flush the toilet. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I wouldn't use writing as punishment. I try very hard to have the punishment be a consequence of the action. For example, DS did his dictation from WWE3. He then proceeded to chew the corner of the paper, causing the hole to split and then tore off that bottom of the page. I printed a new sheet from WWE and had him write it over. I wasn't punishing by writing, it was a consequence of him damaging his paper. Yes, I could have just photocopied what he had done but that would not deter him from defacing his work in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*~Tina~* Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I would chalk that line of thought up to psychobabble or baloney - whichever one prefers. :D Sentence writing as a consequence will neither give nor impede a child's love of learning. I use a paragraph here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenKitty Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I can't remember where I heard this, but awhile back I heard a speaker say that making a child write sentences as part of a punishment will damage that child's love of learning. Do you agree with this? There are times when I think it would be a really deserving punishment for ds. We're having a lot of attitude issues lately and I am very tempted to dole out sentences to him, but I also don't want writing to equal horrible punishment. I've never heard this before now and no I don't agree with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I can't remember where I heard this, but awhile back I heard a speaker say that making a child write sentences as part of a punishment will damage that child's love of learning. Do you agree with this? Nope, I think it's bunk. I mean, if you make your kids writes thousands of sentences a week, then probably yes, but if you use a couple dozen sentences occasionally, I think it's fine. We have had luck with it here with my oldest, who is now 16 but had several bouts of sentence-writing when she was younger. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anabelneri Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 My husband was telling me last week about how "the nuns" at his school used to make him write sentences, 100 at a time, for behavioral issues. If they weren't written neatly, he had to do them all again. He finished his PhD a couple years ago and now teaches grad students. I don't think it affected his love of learning in the least. Of course, it's anecdotal evidence but I don't think you'll find an official study on the matter. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razorbackmama Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Agreeing with the others...hogwash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kchara Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I think there's "writing," as in the physical act of writing, and there's composition. For some reason (and I have heard this before, mostly from my DDs K teacher. She didn't last long...) the general fear is that if they write too much, they'll develop a fear and hatred of composition. :confused: I don't get it. I make my DS write out 100x for repeated behavior issues. The latest has been hiding dirty dishes and things he was supposed to wash. Haven't found a dish since then. :D 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewpeaceful Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 My son has written "I will flush the toilet" three hundred times over the past two months. He still loves learning, and he still doesn't flush the toilet. :lol: Too funny. My daughter wrote sentences for taking my candy without asking and wrotes hundreds of times she would never do it again. 2 weeks later... you guessed it, a piece was missing. It didn't affect her learning. I made her do it all in cursive which made her better at cursive. It didn't affect the behavior. I'd still find other methods. When my kids do things with a bad attitude, I make them do it again and again until done with a good attitude. My ds whined and pouted about math one day which earned him a second assignment. When I found assignment number 2 behind the bookcase, he won a third assignment. He worked on math until 7pm that night. I haven't had an attitude from him over math in 2 months. When my daughter stomps away like a spoiled ... I make her come back, walk kindly. Today's psychology says I am forcing my kids to bottle their emotions and will turn them into Columbine kids. I think I am teaching my kids to MANAGE their emotions and show respect. You be the judge. Good luck with your attitude problem issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxbridgeacademy Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I'd be afraid that my son would hate writing even more than he does now so I would never use it as punishment. This might be different from kid to kid. I just have such a hard time getting him to write. Same for my DS, but it physically hurts him to hand write, on a computer, I might consider it. As for DD I could get anywhere from a "throw herself on the ground screaming" to an "okay! what can I write?" reaction, just not worth it for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NanceXToo Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 We occasionally use that as a punishment for my daughter. It hasn't affected her love of learning. But maybe it's different if a kid is really young, I don't know- we didn't start doing that til she was like 9ish, I wouldn't make a six year old do it or anything, probably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I've only used this punishment a handful of times, and not *hundreds* of lines or anything, but I *have* used it and neither of mine has suffered. In fact, they both write (quite a lot) for fun and are generally curious, enthusiastic learners. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In2why Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I actually thought about this today. My son gave me tons of attitude and then decided that since he didn't feel like doing dictation work that he would write it as messy as he could. I don't think there is anything wrong with writing sentences, and if I get the same attitude again that will be the consequence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue G in PA Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Pop psych would like us all to believe that ANY form of punishment will damage our child's fragile little egos. And pop psych is only hurting our children...NOT firm, Biblical, consistent discipline from loving parents. Anyway, off my soap box. Been reading the Heart of Anger and feeling very convicted of my OWN sins in parenting. But, on to your question. :D I don't think sentences will destroy the love of learning. I also don't think that sentences get to the heart of the issue. Not to say I wouldn't make my dc write if the crime warranted that, kwim? Am I clear as mud? :D Sometimes, I will make a child copy certain scriptures that pertain to the crime committed if I feel like they need it to 'sink in' a bit more. As the crime is often recommitted...i don't think the sentences are really working. But I persist. Something has to work, right? :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sassenach Posted March 14, 2011 Author Share Posted March 14, 2011 I actually thought about this today. My son gave me tons of attitude and then decided that since he didn't feel like doing dictation work that he would write it as messy as he could. I don't think there is anything wrong with writing sentences, and if I get the same attitude again that will be the consequence. We must be living parallel lives! This is EXACTLY what happened today. I had him re-copy it in his neatest handwriting. Thanks for all of the feedback, everyone! I really appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 We must be living parallel lives! This is EXACTLY what happened today. I had him re-copy it in his neatest handwriting. Thanks for all of the feedback, everyone! I really appreciate it. That's what I meant by have the consequence be dictated by the crime. If it's sloppy work, it must be re-written until acceptable. If it's poor attitude in doing an assignment, do another one. But if DC spills his drink, making him write "I will not spill my drink" 100x doesn't seem to serve a purpose. For my son, it took 3 days of no desert after dinner for not putting his plate away. On the 4th night, as he stood to leave the table, he said "OH wait, I must take my plate or I won't get desert!" IT worked! Now if I can just find a consequence for leaving the toilet seat up! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallory Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Well for my antecdotal evidence- I hate writing, I've always hated writing, and I think copying useless things contributed to my hatred of writing. We were supposed to write these little current event mini-papers every Friday in 6th grade. I don't think I ever turned one in. If you didn't bring one, you spent both recesses that day copying newspaper articles. Guess what I did every friday of 6th grade???? I still hate writing, and it sure didn't make me bring in any current event reports either. I do love to learn, but it sure didn't help any writing issues here (Do I have to share how Comp 101 was the last class I took to get my Associates Degree???) But I do make them do work over for sloppiness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dulcimeramy Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I have been known to assign sentences for punishment, but I'm not going to use this method with my third son anymore because he enjoys it too much. See what I mean? (old post) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 We do lines. He currently has to write "Honesty is a virtue" 150 times in neatest handwriting to get his ds back. He was sitting under his desk reading pokemon books instead of cleaning his room. When I asked what he was doing he said "just sitting" Not totally a lie, but not honest either. Also, he was under the desk hoping I would not find him as he KNEW he should be cleaning his room. Honesty and not lying are the 2 biggest things in our house. He started at 50 lines 2 years ago, and he gets 25 added each time it needs to be done. It works, before we started he was just barely 7 and lying ALOT. We tried so many different punishments, this one worked. His current mishap is the first one he has done in 10 months, and he was impressed that I just very calmly said "Give me your DS, I believe it is 150 lines you are now at." He gave me his ds, no sulks and told me that he was very sorry that he made such a bad choice. Lines are great!!!! (in our house) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 In elementary school, I spent most of my recess time writing things like, "I will not daydream in class" or "I will pay attention to my teacher." I don't know what it did for my love of learning or writing, but I do have those sentences deeply scored into my memory. I also missed lots of recesses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FO4UR Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 When the consequence fits, I absolutely use it. Ex. When ds8 wastes the time he is supposed to be working on school...he loses time he was supposed to be playing. Writing 10 copies of "I will not waste my mother's time." can be highly effective for an 8yo. I've had him redo work too. Anything less is teaching him to be a sloppy worker.:confused: Granted, I'm talking about expecting 8yo level work out of an 8yo. kwim. My son has written "I will flush the toilet" three hundred times over the past two months. He still loves learning, and he still doesn't flush the toilet. :lol: :lol: Oh, my!!! Too funny!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3MonkeysMama Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 I think it depends on the child. I use it with my soon to be 8 yr. old ds. He hates writing, for the pure fact that it takes to long! My dd would love it too much though so it wouldn't be effective with her. My son loves to learn, he just doesn't like to waste his time writing. He sure doesn't mind wasting my time though! He has written "I will not waste mommy's time" several times over the last few weeks!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 All my boys had to write "I will work diligently, even when Mom isn't watching." (the number of times was equal to their age) a couple of weeks ago. I told them that if they started goofing off again, they would have to write double their age. It worked, and they were more diligent that day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 I love that this afternoon, I assigned punishment sentences to my DS, then the first post I read on this forum this afternoon was this one! :lol: I've only done this twice so far. The first time, he had stuck a pencil in a salt box, and when asked why the pencil was in the salt box, he said "Salt was coming out, so I plugged up the hole." Of course, he left out that the hole was caused by him poking it. Then a few days later, I was putting up the clay, and realized there were holes all over the container! Thankfully, it hadn't dried out yet. I taped up the holes. I then made some copywork: "Pencils are for writing, not poking holes." I only made him copy it one time (he's a pencil-phobic 6 year old boy), but it was effective. He actually laughed when I handed him the sentence, but it stuck in his mind that this was not acceptable. ;) Today, he could NOT focus on his work, so I gave him 2 sentences of "I will pay attention to my work." When he got done with it, he'd written his words twice as big as the lines would allow, and the writing was horribly sloppy. I hit the print button again and his writing was much neater this time. :) For his dawdling today, this was the best punishment I could think of, as he'd already lost ability to play Wii (originally he was supposed to finish his work and then get to play Wii before dinner). Taking things away from him doesn't always work. He reminds me of myself... When I was young, I was supposed to take out the trash. I didn't like to because it was dark, so I stopped taking it out. My parents said I wouldn't get allowance if I didn't take out the trash. That was fine with me. I didn't spend money often anyway! So obviously that tactic didn't work on me, and I never did take out the trash again. My son is similar, in that he can live without the things you might decide to take away. So it's hard for me to come up with an effective consequence to dawdling when it won't matter to him that much if he loses privileges. I learned early on that even sending him to bed early wasn't a punishment - he likes to sleep! :tongue_smilie: I'm all ears for more creative punishments for dawdling though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockermom Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 I have been known to assign sentences for punishment, but I'm not going to use this method with my third son anymore because he enjoys it too much. See what I mean? (old post) :lol::lol::lol: I missed that the first time. Thanks for sharing it again!! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics4us Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Now if I can just find a consequence for leaving the toilet seat up! :lol: His consequence could be to do a #2 with the seat up. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tree Frog Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 Zombie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ting Tang Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 On 3/14/2011 at 3:26 PM, sassenach said: I can't remember where I heard this, but awhile back I heard a speaker say that making a child write sentences as part of a punishment will damage that child's love of learning. Do you agree with this? There are times when I think it would be a really deserving punishment for ds. We're having a lot of attitude issues lately and I am very tempted to dole out sentences to him, but I also don't want writing to equal horrible punishment. I think you have to use your good judgment about a "punishment" that fits the specific child. What I am trying to be careful about is also not making what should be an ordinary chore into a punishment because I believe all family members should help take care of the home. We recently did have an issue with them keeping the kids' bathroom clean. We now require they ask permission to use it. I typed up a whole list of rules about the bathroom and posted it on our refrigerator door. It has since moved to the side of the refrigerator. I'm now able to use that bathroom if I need to do so, lol. Personally, I do not think writing sentences would be a good punishment for my children because I do want to reserve that for academics. We do have issues with habits and respect, so we need more consistency over here with other matters, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sassenach Posted May 1, 2022 Author Share Posted May 1, 2022 12 hours ago, Brian solomon said: Writing sentences sucks first hand all year long also top that off with my teacher brought a cardboard box and put my desk in the corner with the cardboard around me had my own room all year long 6th grade and i was not a bad kid maybe a bit o adhd but then in 1979 i wasnt given a choice of adderall or such... 6 hours ago, Ting Tang said: I think you have to use your good judgment about a "punishment" that fits the specific child. What I am trying to be careful about is also not making what should be an ordinary chore into a punishment because I believe all family members should help take care of the home. We recently did have an issue with them keeping the kids' bathroom clean. We now require they ask permission to use it. I typed up a whole list of rules about the bathroom and posted it on our refrigerator door. It has since moved to the side of the refrigerator. I'm now able to use that bathroom if I need to do so, lol. Personally, I do not think writing sentences would be a good punishment for my children because I do want to reserve that for academics. We do have issues with habits and respect, so we need more consistency over here with other matters, too. 11 years later I'm happy to report that I eventually did have that kid write sentences and he was not permanently damaged by it. He's currently wrapping up his freshman year in college and remains well adjusted. 3 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarita Posted May 1, 2022 Share Posted May 1, 2022 2 hours ago, sassenach said: 11 years later I'm happy to report that I eventually did have that kid write sentences and he was not permanently damaged by it. He's currently wrapping up his freshman year in college and remains well adjusted. The big question is did it help the attitude issues? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sassenach Posted May 1, 2022 Author Share Posted May 1, 2022 8 hours ago, Clarita said: The big question is did it help the attitude issues? I don’t remember, lol. The time I clearly remember having him write sentences was for treating his sister poorly and it did help, at least temporarily. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ting Tang Posted May 2, 2022 Share Posted May 2, 2022 hehe I am glad! I found our rules posting to help. I didn’t realize this was a zombie post when I commented. Lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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